LGBTQ

Rooting Out Homophobia

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By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

What causes homophobia? Why are lesbian, gay and bisexual people oppressed?

Attempt to find answers to these questions, and many gay rights campaigners will chide you for venturing into territory that is 'too political'. For them, homophobia is simply a fact, probably arising from heterosexuals' ignorance or inherent prejudice, and any deeper analysis is unnecessary headbanging.

Formal Equality and Beyond

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By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999. British laws against homophobia have strengthened in the five years since this was written, but the main argument still stands.

Nazis and Nailbombers: Fighting the Fascists

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By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

On 30 April 1999, a nail-bomb killed three people and injured dozens more. It exploded in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, the heart of gay Soho.

The work of one maniac, now safely behind bars? Even if David Copeland (as we go to press, the man charged with the bombings) is the bomber, and even if he acted alone, an outbreak of racist and anti-gay terrorism has deeper roots, and wider implications, than one man's twisted psychology. After all, various extreme right-wing groups claimed that they planted the bombs - in other words, even if they didn't, they wish that they had.

More than just a party?

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By Faz Velmi

Rainbow flags adorned every building in the vicinity of Canal Street, Manchester's famous gay village as tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people descended on the city. This year Manchester's Pride celebrations over the August Bank holiday would be even bigger than usual, as it hosted the "official" European Pride event. "Europride" was not just the usual hedonism because along with the partying there was the rare opportunity to discuss politics within the LGBT community.

Debate and discussion: Blair is no heterophobe!

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By Maria Exall

Peter Tatchell's articles in Solidarity (3/34) contain two arguments that are less than helpful in campaigning against homophobia in Britain today.

He attempts to define a new social phenomenon of "heterophobia" to explain why the Government is only proposing civil partnership registration for lesbian and gay couples. The Goverment's decision can however be more easily explained by their prioritising of good old fashioned money and marriage.

LGBT Pride parade leaflet text

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This is the text of the leaflet handed out by Workers' Liberty supporters at the Pride Parade on 26 July...

Sexual freedom, social freedom!

1969, the Stonewall riot, when drag queens, transsexuals and rebellious lesbian and gay youth fought back against what had been routine harassment by police, is generally seen as the birth of the LGBT movement.

Industrial in brief

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In brief

* Unison plans a strike ballot over pay for thousands of nursery nurses in Scotland's local authority-controlled nurseries.

* In an outrageous attack on human rights Tony Blair has intervened to alter draft European anti-discrimination legislation to allow religious employers to discriminate against lesbians and gay men.

* Remploy, which employs 5,700 disabled workers, could face strike action after workers rejected a pay rise worth £5 per week. They want £20.